Well, gee, I know this may sound obvious to some… but perhaps it isn’t games that make children violent? Now, I don’t want to go off an a rant here, but…

Maybe it’s being raised in near-poverty by a single mother, or by parents that just “don’t know how” or don’t see discipline as being necessary. Perhaps it is living in a conflicted culture that glorifies violence from some, and villifies it from others.

“Violence is another of those things that isn’t bad when it happens to other people.”

Perhaps maybe instead of ignoring, nay, denying these people and these problems exist, maybe there could be progress made in solving them. Heck, acknowledging the problem could be solved would be a big step in the right direction.

Maybe one day we could get a consitutional amendment and the start of some gun control, so that any nut can’t just walk into a Wal-Mart and get “tooled up wit’ some nines”. And get rid of assault weapons. Civilians just don’t need them. Defense? When was the last time you saw on the news:

“FATHER OF 3 DEFENDS HOME FROM 47 BURGLERS”

A revolver (Single Action Army, anyone) or a shotgun is more than enough to cover the spirit of the 2nd amendmend. Heck, even a revolver is probably overkill, but again a step in the right direction.

Now, don’t get me wrong — I don’t think these games should be played by just anyone. I feel uneasy seeing my 9-year-old nephew playing San Andreas, but that is without cause. Why? Because he knows it is a game. Smart guy. People don’t just suddenly think “Hey, lets go boost some cars cause of that game!”. No.

They are smarter (somewhat, since they’re still dumb enough to imitate a game) than that. They know that their actions will be reported by the sensationalist press as something along the lines of:

“TEENAGER PLAYING DEADLY GAMES – NOW FOR REAL”

So if you disagree with what I’m saying… hire a couple of teenagers to go on a CJ-style rampage and get them to say they were “just copying GTA”.